Category Archives: Latinidad

This past weekend Carlos and I had the unhappy chore of shopping for new cellphone service since my contract with Cricket Wireless is coming to an end this month. Because of the way our family’s service was set up, we weren’t able to keep our phone numbers, making this the third cellphone number change for us in three years.

We spent all weekend setting up the new phones and texting all our contacts to apologetically let them know we have new numbers yet again. Most people dutifully changed our numbers in their contacts and replied with simple responses like “Ok! Got it!”

However, the response Carlos received from his Mexican friend Rigo had us both laughing.

When I was contacted two years ago by producer Evan Buxbaum about his script for SUN BELT EXPRESS, I was hesitant. He wanted to make a film about undocumented immigrants that “could find some of the humor and light, in what is typically a very dark subject.” I asked myself, is that possible? Can one mix humor and such a serious topic?

In the end I agreed to be a beta-reader because Evan seemed very sincere and I thought it was wise of him to verify authenticity in the dialogue and seek opinions of those close to the topic at hand.

I read his script in its entirety and ended up loving it. Evan thanked me for the feedback and I hadn’t really thought much about his project since then, but this week Evan contacted me again – the film has been completed and will be premiering in the U.S. this October. (Check www.sunbeltexpressmovie.com for locations and dates.)

Today I had the opportunity to watch the full-length finished film and found it very much worth sharing with all of you. My review is below, but in short, I encourage you all to support the film and go see it if you’re able to. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

(Full disclosure: As stated, I was a beta-reader for the SUN BELT EXPRESS script and as such you can see my name in the film credits under general “thanks”, however this review reflects only my honest opinion.)

Review – SUN BELT EXPRESS

Allen King (Tate Donovan) is a divorced Ethics professor in southern Arizona who, accused of plagiarism and fired, is forced to commute daily to his new teaching job across the border in Mexico. The money he makes isn’t enough to keep up with his own bills or car maintenance, let alone meet the financial demands of his ex-wife (Rachel Harris) or pay his teenage daughter’s private school tuition. To supplement his income, Allen gets wrapped up in smuggling Mexican immigrants across the border in the trunk of his beat up 1972 Volvo.

Things get complicated when his teenage daughter (India Ennenga) mistakenly thinks her father is doing something altruistic and unexpectedly tags along for the ride. Add in a pregnant ex-girlfriend (Ana de la Reguera), three Mexican men in the trunk, two corrupt U.S. Border Patrol agents, and an overheated car that breaks down at the worst possible moment, and you have a situation that would seem to be no laughing matter – but that’s where you’d be wrong.

Mexicans have a dicho – “Al mal tiempo, buena cara” – which means put on a good face during bad times. Be positive; it’s an attitude shared by many Latin Americans. And while most films on immigration show the heartbreaking reality, the difficult choices made, the perilous journey – SUN BELT EXPRESS is a rare exploration into the humor of this mostly solemn situation.

Talk long enough to a person who immigrated illegally to the United States – more often than not, they will have a funny story or two to tell about their journey. My own husband has told me stories about a guy who accompanied him and carried a bottle of Pepto-Bismol like a hip flask which he regularly took sips from “to help with his nerves.” During another part of his journey, he wasn’t able to turn off a broken sink in a motel bathroom and chaos ensued.

For me, the brilliance of the film SUN BELT EXPRESS is found in moments like this. The dialogue between “passengers” Rafi and Miguel in the trunk is the main highlight. Rafi (Oscar Avila), who is somewhat fat, makes a stressful situation even more stressful for Miguel (Arturo Castro), who happens to be claustrophobic. If lack of space wasn’t enough of a problem, Rafi is quite generous with stories about all the adventures he’s had trying to cross the border before, although he’s only been caught “cinco, seis veces…o lo mucho siete.” The chemistry between these two actors is fantastic, and the friendship that blooms between them on screen made me smile as much as the well-acted humorous lines which are never crass but full of corazón.

SUN BELT EXPRESS contains plenty of entertainment in the form of humor, but it’s well-balanced by a bigger message. Serious themes including morality and political corruption are an essential part of the plot but the film never comes across as preachy. In the end, the deeply flawed protagonist redeems himself and the film succeeds at traversing the difficult border between heartfelt humor and hurtful ridicule when dealing with extremely sensitive subject matter. SUN BELT EXPRESS is a daring, fresh take on the immigration journey which is just as likely to spark important conversation as it is laughter.

I’m not even sure how I stumbled upon this educational telenovela called “Long Live La Familia”, but I’m glad I did. It’s almost 30 minutes long and a little cheesy, but I watched the whole episode of “No Hay Nada En El Fridge” and there’s so much I love about this video: The mix of languages, the interactions between different generations, the socks with chanclas… Watch and tell me what you liked. (You can skip to 3:40 in the video, that’s when the actual telenovela starts.)

We have our official Panini album for World Cup Brazil 2014! If you don’t know what that is, it’s an album that one can fill with stickers of the soccer players. We bought the album for $2 and the sticker packets for $1 each. Each packet contains 7 stickers. Sometimes one gets doubles and they can trade them with other people to get the stickers they need.

The album came with a few free stickers, and mine came with Chicharito!

I love the album for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons is because it’s multilingual.

The other day Carlos came home with ten packets. Usually the whole family has fun putting the stickers in the album but Carlos and I had a disagreement regarding the best method to do this.

I said it would be best if we first organized the stickers by team, but Carlos said it’s better if we go page-by-page in the album, finding the stickers we need along the way. We ended up doing it the way Carlos wanted, and we had to go back several times for stickers that had been overlooked.

Next time we do it my way!

What method do you use to fill your album?

Note: I am not an official sponsor or partner of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™. Any mention of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ was editorial in nature and should not be interpreted as an endorsement on their part of myself, my opinions, or this website. I am just a soccer fan sharing with other soccer fans. All opinions are my own.

This past weekend, Carlos and I went to the “mercado de pulgas”, (also known as “el mercadillo” but all the Salvadorans and Mexicans I know here in the United States call it “mercado de pulgas” or simply “las pulgas” because in English it’s called “flea market.”)

The thing I like about this flea market in particular is that there are Latino vendors selling things I love. Of course I took some photos to show you.

In the photo at the top of this post you can see they sell soccer jerseys. That day they didn’t have the jerseys we were looking for, so we went to a store – but I’ll share about the store in another post. Anyway, there were other soccer things I liked.

Shopping made me thirsty, so we went to the food truck for a nice, cold horchata.

Seeing the delicious food reminded me that I needed to buy groceries for the week. They don’t have everything I need at the flea market, but they have good prices on fruits and vegetables.